I looked over at the newly made headstone that was in front of me, the white words on it taunting me to the point where I wanted to rip all my hair out.
~Anthony Robert Williams~
Dec. 18, 1995 - Dec. 18, 2013
Tears that I promised myself I wouldn't let fall were now welling up to the point that everything was a blur. This whole week went by in a blur. So many things happened, that I just...
I just couldn't believe it...
I couldn’t take it all in at once.
Flashback after flashback came to me like lightning striking the same spot over and over again, and it was just as painful too. All the memories we shared, all the things we did together; all of it came at me full force as I stared at the picture of him carved into the gravestone. The memory of how I found him... it will forever be stuck in the back of my brain.
"Hello, ladies and gentleman!" I yelled cheerfully into the new camera I was holding to my face. "I'm Lillian Tyler Williams, but you can call me Lily! Anyway! Guess what? This isn't my camera! This is a gift I'm giving to my big lug of a brother for his birthday today!" The smile I gave as I stared into the camera was big and proud, going from ear to ear.
'I hope he likes it,' I said in my head nervously as I switched the camera so my right arm was now holding it, my left arm sore from holding it up that long.
"I really hope he likes it, I spent every single dollar I had on it," I added with a chuckle, looking back to the school. "Speaking of him, where is he? He should've been out already. School's been over for five minutes now," I mumbled, my eyebrows furrowing as a thoughtful graced my face. I stayed like that for a couple minutes until something in my brain suddenly clicked and my brown eyes lit up as I turned to completely face the camera again. "I have an idea!" I squealed out in excitement "Since you're the same color as the wall of the school and the railings, I'll hide you there as I go get him, and then w0e can surprise him!"
My energy was on full blast as I sprinted to the front of the school and up the steps. "Dude, we fucked up," I heard someone say in the distance as footsteps started getting louder and closer to the door, making my eyes widen as I sprinted off the stairs with the camera and hid on the side of the stairs.
"Great, maybe that's why he didn't come to the car yet," I whispered as I turned the camera to face me. "They're always bullying him and treating him like he's garbage. They're such... such... jerks!" I grumbled, not having it in me to swear. Thinking about them though made an idea form in my mind as the hate for them that bubbled inside of me made my eyes light up mischievously, looking at the camera with a sneaky expression. "Maybe if I video tape their conversation I can get something out of them so that I can make Anthony laugh!" I whispered excitedly to myself, before I quickly turned the camera to face the stairs, making sure to get each guy's face in the camera.
"Dude, shut the hell up! Someone can be here, listening to us!" the person that sort of looked like the leader hissed, as he slapped the person on the back of the head, making all of the guys stop walking. They were now casually standing at the front door of the school, making me nervous. What if they find me? What if I just videotape them and I get nothing out of it? What if I accidentally make noise? What if they stay there fore-
"No one is here, man. Calm down," the third guy said, looking like he has done whatever they were talking about before. I think I remembered his name. I believe that it started with the letter D.
Dylan? Darren? Drake? Dere-
"What happens when they find the body? Do you think they'll know it was us?" a different guy said, obviously very nervous about all of this.
"No one's going to find out. The police here are stupid motherfuckers who don't even care about doing their job right. They'll probably just say poor little Anthony committed suicide or something like that," the third guy replied, making a small gasp escape my lips. My brother? Suicide? What did they do this time?
After noticing a couple of seconds to late that I gasped out loud though I quickly cover my mouth, but sadly the nervous guy heard it and jumped, alertness etched onto his face.
"Did you guys hear that?" the guy rushed out, making the others laugh at him.
"I think he's hallucinating now," a different guy in the back said as a tear dropped down my face, my grip on the camera getting shaky.
"Come on, let's go. I don't want to stay here anymore," a different guy said, making the leader nod and signal with his hand for them to move out. As they walked down the stairs and past the almost empty parking lot- Anthony and I's car the only ones left at the front of the school- my eyes watered even more and my grip tightened from fear, shaking more then I expected it to.
"Anthony," I whispered as soon as they were in their car and driving away, making me quickly run up the steps with my camera in hand and run around the hallways, trying to find him. "ANTHONY! ANTHONY WHERE ARE YOU? ANTHONY!" I screamed out, running as fast as I could down the halls, looking for any signs of him. At the speed I was going you would have thought that the building was either on fire or about to collapse; which made a new type of alertness overcome me as I ran to the point where I thought my legs were going to fall off from the pain. "ANTHON-" I started, but cut myself off when I found out that I stopped right in front of the boy’s restroom. Something about it tempted me to go in there, but then the other half was cringing at the thought of going in. It was the boy's restroom after all, and going in there wasn't an everyday thing I did. "Anthony?" I mumbled out in a choked sounding voice, hands trembling. When I heard no reply I hesitated and hovered my hand over the doorknob, not knowing what to do.
'Should I open it?' I asked myself as I let my fingertips graze the doorknob.
'Open it!' a voice inside my head screamed with rushed urgency, making me quickly open it and step inside.